You've got to set the tone and strike the right note.
I'll do whatever it takes.
This is not going to be easy.
Grab the butter, bring the bravado.
I'm here to kick some butt.
This is a celebration of the one, the only, the OG French chef.
I'm Julia Child.
Every basket is a puzzle.
Let's take coq au vin. Put it through the chopped meat grinder.
Julia's classic recipes will inspire innovative and modern dishes.
There's a million directions you can go in here.
Flavor in 20 minutes, hello?
I'm hoping it's cooked.
So exciting.
It smells delicious.
Sixteen chefs are gunning for a dream trip to France.
-Oh, my God. -Heard that.
Watch your back, baby.
Here comes the drama.
[Julia] Don't overcook the duck.
What is he thinking?
-It's a lot of pressure. - Ah!
We've got to go, here! It's go time! Let's go!
Move, boy.
Julia would be very upset right now. She'd be drinking wine.
It's going to go very fast.
Oh my God, the clock is going. It's terrifying.
Feel like I'm going to cry.
We're almost there, mama.
[exclamation]
That was a mistake.
Welcome to Chopped.
Bon appetit.
Today we're making my version of duck a l'orange.
[Julia] This is what they call la grand cuisine.
But most importantly, we're going to have fun.
I'm a private chef based in San Francisco, California.
When other kids were watching cartoons,
I was watching Julia Child.
And that's crazy.
[Stanley] Julia Child really had this inviting spirit.
The way she cooked made me feel like I was in France.
Look at that.
My style of cooking is very California progressive.
I think of colors, I think of season.
I'm excited. Bring it on.
Lovely. Just lovely.
[Natalie] I've never had a problem being awesome at stuff.
It's what's in the crust that counts.
[Natalie] I'm the executive chef
of Spice Catering Company in Cleveland, Ohio.
When you eat one of my dishes, you'll be left with this feeling of satisfaction.
Lovely velvety taste.
[Natalie] Julia Child found her love for cooking later in life, and so did I.
I went to the navy and then I went to culinary school.
And using classical French techniques, I feel that connection.
We will drink this whole bottle
while we wait for our galette to cook.
Voila.
I'm probably the only competitor
old enough to watch on a black and white TV.
I'm the chef de cuisine at Fisher's Restaurant at Orange Beach, Alabama.
I'm a trained sushi chef.
I love all cuisines but I always go back to French.
It's time, then, to put in your cups.
I always went back to Julia's books.
I'd pick out recipes and try to update them for modern restaurant dining.
It's really important to me personally to challenge myself
and have a lot of fun with it.
Next stop, Paris.
Like this. Well, that didn't go very well.
[Abbie] I love Julia because she's fearless.
I'm the executive chef of the International House in Berkeley, California.
My style of cooking is schoolbook cuisine
using south east Asian ingredients.
It needs more salt. And butter.
The butter carries the flavors.
[Abbie] I love Julia, because she's just really good at making you feel comfortable.
Even in the hardest struggles.
[Julia] The only way you learn how to flip things is just to flip them.
[Abbie] I'm here to prove that dreams can come true
if you believe in yourself, you work really hard and not be afraid.
Hi, chefs.
-Hello, Ted. -Hi, Ted.
Welcome to Chopped, Julia Child's Kitchen.
Whoo!
You share her passion for bold and precise work in the kitchen.
[both] That's right.
[Stanley] Julia Child impacted me so much.
It feels full circle to be able to have this opportunity.
The baskets will be inspired by recipes from Julia Child's TV show, The French Chef.
I love that show.
The champion of this preliminary battle will advance to the finale
to compete for a $25,000 dream vacation to France,
featuring an immersive agenda into all things Julia Child.
That's amazing. I can't wait to go to France.
That's so exciting.
Let's hear from Julia herself, which classic recipe will inspire your appetizers.
Welcome to The French Chef.
I'm going to do truites meunieres,
which means trout covered a little bit with flour.
I'm going to cook these in clear melted butter.
Butter, butter, trout. I've got it.
And that's the whole fish story.
That's right, chefs. Take inspiration from trout meuniere.
[Stanley] I really love that brown butter, caper, parsley, lemon.
It's a classic combination.
-Now, I bet you're curious to find out what's in these. -[Natalie] Yes.
Open your appetizer baskets.
-Whoa. -Oh, wow.
-Oh my God. -Snapper heads?
[Ted] And you see fish heads.
I'm thinking I'm going to be working with a beautiful piece of trout
and I get snapper heads.
-Pomelo. -[Ted] Pomelo.
-Meringues for appetizer. -[Ted] Brown butter macaron.
Macarons would be great in a dessert round.
But, you know. Paired with fish heads, not so much.
And salade lyonnaise.
It's a lardon frisee salad with poached egg.
All right. Looking for starter plates inspired by trout meuniere.
[Ted] 20 minutes.
Clock starts now.
Let's go, chefs. Come on.
Amanda, Scott You are joined by a special guest.
Restauranteur and author-chef Michael Voltaggio.
-Yay. -Welcome, Michael.
Chefs. Thank you, guys, for having me.
Every Chopped basket is a puzzle,
but these Julia Child baskets are a little different.
What's cool about this is we're giving them something to be inspired by.
Inspired by trout meuniere.
[Michael] It's fish, lightly dusted in flour,
perfectly sauteed in brown butter,
parsley, some lemon juice, and that's the dish.
Now it's time I wish I had both legs.
My connection to Julia Child goes way back.
Mastering the art of French cooking was the bible.
So as a young cook,
trout meuniere is one of the first things you learn and saute.
The acidity of the lemon and then being buffered by the richness of the butter.
I'm feeling pretty confident about this round.
Roly poly fish heads.
I'm making a meuniere-inspired fish salad
with frisee, capers and the meat from the snapper head.
Right behind.
[Abbie] I first saw Julia Child growing up in the Philippines.
Julia definitely encouraged me to be fearless in the kitchen.
I am making poached fish head
over tomato herb salad
with lardon caramelized onions.
In the Philippines, we do eat a lot of fish heads.
Chef Abbie, what are you making?
Um, I'm braising the fish heads with a lot of citrus.
What I'm not hearing is brown butter.
Classic truites meunieres has frothy brown butter.
[Abbie] To top off my fish, I am making a brown butter dressing
with brown butter French macaron filling.
I'm going to hit all the notes to replicate the dish trout meuniere.
Chefs, less than 15 minutes left.
[Scott] I think the real intention with this appetizer
is to be able to mimic taste memories of what trout meuniere is.
So there's enough raw meat on those fish heads
that you can create a tartare out of it, or a crudo.
[Natalie] The inspiration is the trout meuniere.
And I do want to bring similarities in cooking style and flavor profiles.
I'm making warm snapper mousse on a crostini
with a pomelo vinegarette salad.
But as I'm getting into these fish heads,
just going to try to pull as much of this meat out.
I'm just realizing how very little meat is actually in them.
Chef Natalie, how about you? What are you making?
[Natalie] I'm hoping I can get a mousse out of some of this snapper.
I'm definitely trying to channel Julia's tenacity in the kitchen.
[Stanley] Growing up on the south side of Chicago,
greens, it was a big part of our diet.
I realized that the bacon lardons
would really lend themselves to braised greens
and I think that this is going to be a good base for this dish.
Chef Stan, how about you, sir? What are you building, chef?
I'm going to do a braised fish head with some braised greens,
a pomelo and brown butter macaron vinegarette.
Wow, does Chef Stan have more time than everybody else?
-[laughs] -You know.
[Stanley] When I was in high school, we had career day.
The cooking school that I ended up going to did a presentation.
I felt like they were talking directly to me.
And I remember running home. I know what I want to do. I want to be a chef.
And the rest is history.
[Ted] A lot of home cooks might think
that fish heads are something that should be thrown in the garbage.
And they could not be more wrong.
That collar meat is some of the best tasting meat on the animal.
Usually, you take the head and make a broth.
Just 10 minutes on the clock.
Trout meuniere is one of the very first French recipes I've learned,
so I know the brown butter aspect of my dish is going to be critical.
So I've started splitting my macarons open.
I want to take that brown butter filling
and I'm going to put it into my mayonnaise
to give it brown butter flavor without having to make brown butter.
[Michael] There's not a lot of meat on these snapper heads
and so in 20 minutes, to get that meat pulled off,
and give us an actual appetizer,
that's another challenge within a challenge within a challenge.
[Ted] I agree with you.
[Scott] You see chef Mike right now kind of picking through those heads,
extracting all the meat out of it.
Some of the bones and some of the scales are mixing in with the meat.
Somebody's going to tear me apart
for having a fishbone in my damn salad, here.
[Abbie] I get started on my salad.
The tomatoes counteract the brown butter sauce
and accentuate the fish more.
We have this very classic, French salad, salad lyonnaise,
which has a poached egg on top, a Dijon vinaigrette.
I think it's actually a gift for this dish,
because that frisee is like an herb,
so you could chop that thing very fine,
throw that into the frothy butter,
and mimic that sauce of the classic meuniere.
[Abbie] I take the frisee from the salad lyonnaise
and I laid it in the bottom of my dish.
[Stanley] I decide that I'm going to make a vinegarette for my dish,
to kind of tie in the fish cheeks with the braised greens.
I'm going to use the citrus from the pomelo as my acid.
I'm going to use the brown butter cream from the macaron
as, like, an emulsifier.
[Natalie] I'm realizing that I need to add something fresh and bright,
so I use the frisee
then toss that in some olive oil
and some pomelo juice to make a vinaigrette.
Four minutes left, chefs.
Chef Natalie is painstakingly going through the boiled fish head
to make this mousse.
[Natalie] I'm just hoping I have time to pick off enough meat
to make the mousse.
I don't know what Natalie is thinking.
There's not a lot of meat in here.
The concern with Natalie going through fish heads and trying to get meat out
is she won't have enough for four plates.
The salad lyonnaise gave me an inspiration of, like, maybe you bring bacon into this.
[Natalie] I'm adding the croutons and the pancetta from the salad lyonnaise
to replace some of the meat that I know I don't have.
I take my macaron filling and I put it into the food processor
but I also took a squeeze of my pomelo juice
to utilize that ingredient in more than one way.
[Mike] I've got the frisee from the salad and I'm going to use that
to add a little bulk to my meuniere-inspired fish salad.
-[Ted] Let's go, chefs. -[Amanda] You only have two minutes.
You've got to start plating right now, chefs.
[Abbie] To top off my poached fish head,
I poured the lardon in my salad lyonnaise to added caramelized onion.
Don't forget the meuniere aspect of this.
[Stanley] Brown butter is a big part of Julia's trout meuniere,
so I wanted to incorporate that
by re-toasting these breadcrumbs.
Just one minute left. It's going to go very fast.
Get this stuff on the plate, let's go.
You've got to be finishing up.
These chefs have left themselves so much work to do.
Final seconds, chefs. Polish up those plates.
All four ingredients, chefs. Count them.
Seven,
six,
five,
four,
three,
two,
one,
time's up.
The time goes by so fast, so fast.
My heart's still pounding.
[Natalie] That round kicked my butt.
I mean, it was just not a lot of meat.
I just hope that I got enough flavor.
Julia Child devotees.
In your appetizer basket you got fish heads,
pomelo,
brown butter macaron
and salade lyonnaise,
ingredients inspired by Julia Child's recipe for trout meuniere.
Chef Stan, please tell us about your dish, sir.
Today, I prepared for you braised fish head
over bacon lardons, braised greens.
I also made a vinegarette
with, uh, pomelo juice
and the cream from the brown butter macaron.
Chef, what does Julia Child mean to you?
I grew up in a very chaotic upbringing.
By the time I was eight, we were homeless.
Oh, my gosh.
But somehow, I was drawn to Julia Child.
And I used to fight with my brother,
'cause he wanted to watch something else,
and I wanted to watch Julia Child.
She has this comforting presence.
She was able to transport me into her kitchen.
[Scott] Well, chef, the amount of flavor,
not just in the greens but also with the bacon,
is really good.
And I think that the cook on the fish is surprisingly
perfect.
There are a few scales and bones and things like that
and I think that there's a whisper, I would say, of a trout meuniere in here.
-I think you could have doubled down on that. -Okay. Thank you.
I think you embraced the salad lyonnaise
more than you embraced the trout meuniere.
But I think Julia would like this, because there's a lot of soul in here.
[Michael] You embraced that brown butter flavor profile
-and I did get some of that meuniere flavor in there. -Okay.
Thank you chef Stan. Chef Mike, what do we have?
Judges, today I made for you a meuniere-inspired fish salad.
How does your dish embrace trout meuniere?
Half way through her career, she started using a lot more of the offcuts.
Fish heads making the stews,
that kind of stuff's right up my alley.
I work in a restaurant in a marina.
Chef, I think you made such a beautiful plate.
I love the fattiness and the richness of your sauce.
I taste the pomelo.
The fish is tasty, but there's definitely some bones.
Yeah, that's my biggest worry.
Some stuff in there that makes me hesitate.
I got a lot of scales and a lot of pin bones and things like that.
But I love how you took this classic approach
and it's actually quite balanced.
Your flavors are really on point.
I like the texture of the frisee that you have, as well.
This isn't an exact rendition of meuniere, obviously,
but I think you have the fattiness, the richness, the citrus,
that comes from a meuniere dish.
Thank you, Chef Mike.
Next up, Chef Natalie.
Chefs, I've made for you a warm snapper mousse on a crostini
with a salad dressed in a pomelo vinegarette.
I just wanted to embrace the French flavors, um, and hopefully I did that.
How did you become a chef?
When I was younger, I decided to join the navy, so I did that.
I'd started watching a lot of Food Network.
I enrolled in culinary school and kind of never looked back.
[Amanda] Chef, you got all the ingredients on the plate, for sure.
You got some flavor into there.
My struggle is with mousse, the terminology on this.
Yeah.
If anything, this would be a fish spread, essentially.
Mmm-hmm.
You're missing just some of those wonderful, like, citrus,
brown butter flavors here.
We need a little bit more of that pomelo inside here.
I think we need a little bit more of those brown butter and macaron as well.
The salad, I feel like maybe we could have done a little bit more with that,
but it has really great flavor.
I was actually pleasantly surprised.
Thank you.
Finally, chef Abbie. Please tell us about your dish.
I made for you a red snapper meuniere
topped with a lardon caramelized onion.
For me, this dish out of all four,
captured the essence of the trout meuniere.
[Amanda] You have this coating of the brown butter
and the sweetness from the macaron.
I really liked eating through it.
It made me want to go back for more.
I liked what you did, here.
The herbs, your usage of the pomelo,
the amount of fish that you were able to extract from the fish heads,
all of it works really, really well.
Thank you.
Chef Abbie, thank you.
You all came here to celebrate Julia Child's legacy.
Unfortunately, we must soon part ways with one of you.
I don't feel super great about that round.
I'm just hoping my creativity stands out.
I am nervous.
'Cause I've seen this show before and it sounds like, wow. You're doing so good,
but then, you know what? You're not.
So whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Natalie, you've been chopped.
Judges.
Chef Natalie, there were some missed opportunities
to bring in the inspiration from the trout meuniere.
Maybe getting some brown butter
and using the pomelo more would have really helped.
And so, we had to chop you.
Thank you. Good luck, everybody. Thank you.
I felt like I was more creative than a lot of the other chefs were.
But I was happy to be here and get the chance to compete.
All right, chefs. You ready for the next round?
WWJD.
What would Julia do?
Chef Mike, Chef Stan, Chef Abbie.
You can expect more of Julia Child's favorite things
inside these entree baskets.
Are you nervous?
Very.
Once again we'll let the master tell you
which classic recipe will inspire your dish.
We're going to make boeuf bourguignon.
Beef stew in red wine.
[Ted] That's right, chefs.
Your entree should take its inspiration from beef bourguingon.
It shows you so many useful things about French cooking.
How to brown meat. How to make a wonderful sauce.
Open up the second basket.
All right. Bavette.
[Ted] And you've got Wagyu beef bavette.
Nice.
Bavette is a French term to a hanger steak or skirt steak.
[Ted] Chanterelle mushrooms.
And then we've got baby vegetables.
[Ted] Petite mirepoix.
What is this?
[Ted] Red wine powder.
[Abbie] I have never seen red wine powder before.
Very terrifying.
Thirty minutes to tackle the entree round.
Clock starts now.
-Let's go, chefs! Come on. -Let's go.
Judges, the first dish Julia Child wanted to teach the world,
was beef bourguignon.
[Michael] That was a super important dish to her
and part of the messaging and the foundation of that entire show.
What it is, is beef stew made with burgundy.
[Amanda] This is about technique. You have to cook the meat well.
You have to sear the meat. You have to get that beautiful flavor.
I would take that bavette of wagyu
and just make a dry rub off sauce with that red wine powder
so that you get, like, on the outside, all that bourguignon flavor.
Beef bourguignon takes hours
and I think the biggest challenge here
is getting that concentrated flavor in 30 minutes.
Oh my gosh.
[Abbie] Out of all the recipes that Julia ever made,
beef bourguignon, it is my go to dish.
I am hoping to show the judges my deep connection with Julia.
I am making a pan-seared wagyu bavette
and I'm hoping to recreate delicious beef bourguignon
by making a creamy polenta in a rich, red wine sauce.
Red wine powder is more or less all the leftover stuff
after the winemaker has made the wine.
I really think Julia would love the red wine powder.
I think she'd put it in sauces.
She might even put it in some water and drink it.
Bring back the dancing chickens.
-Make a coq au vin out of it. -Yes.
My reduction is looking really loose
so I add corn starch and butter to thicken it up.
Chefs, 20 minutes on the clock.
[Mike] Not a bad piece of meat.
Beef bourguignon is one of my favorite classic dishes.
I'm creating a very straightforward
classic-flavored bavette bourguignon.
Sprinkle it with a little bit of red wine powder...
Chef Mike, not surprisingly, is going very classic.
He has the beef in the pan right now.
Has some red wine powder on the outside.
I'm hoping that's going to infuse the steak
with the red wine that you would think would be infused
in the meat of a stew.
I'm looking to cook the steaks to about a medium-rare.
I wanna brown them because that browning and that fond
is gonna really recreate a classic bourguignon flavor.
It's something that's directly Julia-influenced.
[intense music playing]
[Stanley] I make beef bourguignon pretty often.
So I know that there's different ways that I can really approach this.
I'm making grilled wagyu bavette...
I'm peeling some sweet potatoes.
...over some sweet potato mash and glazed mirepoix.
Some mushrooms...
I love chanterelle mushroom. They have a meaty texture.
That really good roast and glaze on them.
This is gonna be a highlight of this dish.
Being next to Abbie and Mike, it really just keeps me on my toes.
This is not gonna be a cake walk.
[Abbie] You have to be careful when you're cooking beef daube.
If you overcook it, it gets very stringy.
I'm using chanterelle mushrooms
and the mirepoix
to make a vegetable medley as another layer of texture to my dish.
Chefs, just under 10 minutes!
[Mike] I'm cooking my mushrooms in bacon and onions.
That's the classic start for a bourguignon.
The dish that we're taking inspiration from, I would want it, like, pan-roasted
in a cast iron pan.
Stan is grilling it.
[Stanley] I decided to use the red wine powder
in this sauce because I really want
to have that beef bourguignon element to the dish.
[intense music playing]
Abbie, how are we looking, chef?
[Abbie] I'm just letting the wagyu rest before I cut it.
I start cutting. It's on the rare, rare side.
Almost raw.
The wagyu bavette is like a flank steak, and it should be served medium-rare.
And she's putting them back in the pan.
[Abbie] I am trying to remain calm.
Julia would say, "Everything is not perfect in the kitchen, but just keep on going."
[Mike] I'm making my bavette bourguignon with some haricot verts.
The classic French accompaniment.
And some seared potatoes to give it more of a stew-like feeling to the plate.
Mirepoix is your classic mix of onions, carrots and celery that you start off
any stew with.
I toss in with the green beans the baby carrots and the baby scallions
to give them a little bit more flavor.
Let's get it on the plate, chef.
You got 1:30, okay? You gotta hustle.
I've used petite mirepoix. Takes a lot of effort to cultivate these.
And I wanna make sure that I'm respecting them.
It'll lend a nice eye appeal to the dish.
Let's get it on the plate. Let's go.
We should taste beef and red wine.
[Ted] All right, get 'em done, chefs. Seconds remain.
Ten, nine, eight, seven,
six, five, four,
three, two, one.
Time's up!
[intense music playing]
[Abbie] I don't know why I picked that black plate.
I don't even see the sauce.
There are so many concerns that I have right now.
[Stanley] This round was totally different.
It's an entree, there's a lot more you gotta get on a plate.
And there's a lot more at stake. The pressure was definitely there.
[clock ticking]
[intense music playing]
Chefs, your second basket contained wagyu beef bavette,
chanterelle mushrooms, petite mirepoix and red wine powder.
Ingredients inspired by Julia Child's recipe for beef bourguignon
Starting with you, Chef Abbie, what do we have?
So today I made for you a pan-seared wagyu steak
with a red wine reduction.
And then, the mirepoix medley and a creamy polenta.
-[Ted] Who are you competing for? -[Abbie] I have two boys.
One 16 year old and a 5-month-old baby.
-Wow! -So I want them to be proud of me.
Abbie, first of all, the meat is seasoned, uh, perfectly.
I love the fresh herbs. It is still slightly rarer than I would like it.
I agree with Michael. The beef is seasoned so well.
But the vegetables needed a lot more seasoning on them.
And then the use of the red wine powder worked.
I just think the cornstarch thickening gave it a... A very muddy thickness to it.
That is not a great representation of what a red wine reduction should be.
But I do think you got some of that inspiration of beef bourguignon
with the mushroom and the... And the red wine flavor.
Next up, Chef Stan. Please tell us about your dish.
Here we have a grilled, uh, wagyu bavette
over mashed sweet potatoes,
pan-roasted chanterelle mushrooms,
and then, glazed micro mirepoix.
Stan, your sauce to me is probably my favorite part of the dish.
And it's a pretty flavorful sauce.
The garlic, the shallots, the pancetta, the wine...
I wouldn't say it's reminiscent of beef bourguignon,
but some of those flavors are there.
Yeah.
The way that you took the care to blanche the mirepoix,
and then reintroduce it and glaze it, I thought was very smart.
But I definitely would've liked to see more
roasted crust on the outside of that beef.
The bavette itself could use a little more seasoning.
-[Stanley] Okay. -[Scott] But there's a lot of depth.
A lot of really beautiful flavor.
I really love the mushrooms in here.
They're really delicious. The addition of the pancetta, it gave some salt to this dish
that it really needed.
Because the sweet potato puree... It was a little bit bland.
But I kept going back for more, so I really did like the flavors.
All right. Thank you for that.
Finally, Chef Mike.
I have a bavette bourguignon.
I made this with full respect to the classic dish.
Chef, what would you say motivates you?
I love to cook, and it's one of the few things in my life that's been a constant.
In a really bad part of my life--
I had a really bad motorcycle accident,
and the first thing I did after I got out of the hospital
was go to a restaurant and trim down a loin of tuna.
It was a lot harder on my wife than it was for me.
She was one of the main reasons that I could keep working.
[Amanda] The dish feels very classic to me.
My beef is tender, seasoned well.
This is just delicious.
-[Scott] It's old-school. Right? -[Mike] Yeah.
-[Scott] You're old-school. -I--
This is how you cook. This is how you came up.
It is, and I've made a lot of mistakes in my career
of trying too hard to make ingredients something they're not.
And I wanted to respect some great stuff there.
Every single item on this plate tastes the way it should.
And your steak is cooked very well.
I do love that you seared the beef for that cut of meat.
And in this style of this dish was a very smart way to go.
I actually feel like that could've even been seared a little bit more.
But you could have a little bit more of a harder sear on the exterior there.
But, you know, what we got is great.
-Thank you. -Chef Mike, thank you.
We'll know soon which two competitors have made it to the final round.
[tense music playing]
I'm feeling a little emotionally drained.
I'm nervous, but I know that anything can happen.
[Abbie] I think the red wine powder got the best of me.
I'm feeling very nervous and scared.
[intense music playing]
You all want to make Julia Child-inspired desserts,
but only two of you will have that chance.
[intense music playing]
Chef Abbie, you've been chopped.
-Judges? -[Michael] Abbie, this particular dish...
The beef was seasoned beautifully. Unfortunately, it was slightly undercooked.
And then that red wine powder, I think that sauce just got away from you,
and for that reason, we had to chop you.
Thank you, chef.
Chef, it was really a pleasure having you. Thank you.
To feel the pain of losing is the hardest thing.
But, as Julia would say, mistakes happen, and you just have to keep on going.
I feel that Stan isn't quite the accomplished French chef that I am.
[Stanley] Going up against Chef Mike, I feel like
maybe he's not comfortable doing desserts.
I might really have a solid shot at this.
[Ted] Chef Stan. Chef Mike.
You get just 30 minutes to make dessert with the goal of advancing
to the finale of our Chopped Julia Child's Kitchen Tournament.
Let's see what classic recipe will inspire your desserts.
[static buzzing]
[Julia Child] Gonna start with one of the most famous French desserts.
Crepes suzette.
Flaming with cognac and orange liqueur.
Spoon the flaming sauce over the crepes.
[Mike] I'm really excited.
Crepes are one of the good things I can make.
I'm trying to hide my grin.
[Ted] You'll need to be in a "crepes suzette" frame of mind
as you open this final basket.
[anticipatory music playing]
Check 'em out!
Wow.
[Ted] And we want you to make final plates using orange ice cream pops.
Is somebody mad at me or...
Orange ice cream pop is sweet, but also it can be refreshing.
We got beets.
[Ted] Candy cane beets.
Ramen noodles.
[Ted] Ramen noodles.
Not good.
What am I gonna do with these things?
[Ted] And French whiskey.
Thirty minutes.
Clock starts now.
-Let's go, chefs! -Let's go, chefs, let's go!
Last course, make it great!
One thing that I love about crepes suzette is how simple it is.
It's a perfectly executed crepe and the sauce made out of, like,
orange liqueur, brandy, cognac.
I hope that they don't detour too far away from the essence of what it is.
It's a layup to be able to do a crepe.
But is there something else these chefs can do
that is still gonna evoke that experience of having a crepe suzette?
-Absolutely. -[Scott] Right?
You could make a cake. Or you could make an actual pancake.
-Or a crepe cake. -[Amanda] A crepe cake!
-[Scott exclaims] -I love those!
[Stanley] It's the final round, and...
I can see the finish line. So I wanna really bring
a classy element to this dessert.
For my dish, I'm making a sabayon.
With a ramen streusel...
[chuckling]
...and a beurre d'orange sauce.
With my candy cane beets,
I decided I'm gonna candy 'em.
[Michael] And you have these beautiful, sweet baby beets.
Those turned into a dessert... It's not that wild of an idea.
[Stanley] I decided to add apples so that there's some tart in it.
[Scott] Stan is now cutting up the ramen noodles.
The ramen noodles are essentially an egg noodle.
They really are flavorless.
So you can manipulate them to sweet.
So this ramen noodle is really throwing me in for a loop.
But I decided to go with a streusel.
I... I wanna use it as a texture piece.
I added it to a bowl of flour, brown sugar and cold cubed butter.
[Mike] Chef Stan's really knowledgeable. He's a tough competitor.
So I'm gonna kick some butt.
I'm making beet and orange glazed crepes.
I make really good crepes. I know I can make them well.
Julia made them well. And it's gonna be a perfect ending to a French meal.
I wanna put some orange zest in there.
It's a classic trick to making crepes suzette.
It gives it a little bit more orange kick.
I look at the beets, and I'm immediately thinking
I'm going to caramelize them and turn that into a puree.
And make a beet custard filling for my crepes.
Fifteen minutes to go, chefs!
[intense music playing]
[Stanley] So I'm making a sabayon. And it's egg yolks, sugar,
and it's cooked over double boiler, whipped until it's really nice,
airy, and fluffy.
The way Chef Mike cooks pushes me.
He knows the classical way to do things. He has years and years of experience.
This is not gonna be easy.
-All right, clock's down to five minutes, chefs. -Thank you, Ted.
I haven't heard of any dessert with ramen before, and I've got to figure out
how to cook these or not cook them.
Do ramen noodles puff when you fry 'em?
I tried frying some of the ramen up.
If it puffs up like rice noodles, I'm gonna be golden.
-It didn't puff. -[tense music playing]
Chef Mike, how are you doing?
-Freaking out a little bit. Not too bad. -Oh, no!
That's the first round you're freaking out.
Yeah, I know.
I'm really starting to feel the pressure.
I'm really worried about that.
I don't have a clue what I'm gonna do.
[intense music playing]
Chef Mike, how are you doing?
[Mike] Freaking out a little bit.
I haven't heard of any dessert with ramen before.
Do ramen noodles puff when you fry 'em?
It didn't puff. It just got harder.
But Julia always said that mistakes are gonna happen in the kitchen.
Fix it, and make the most of it.
I pan-fried the ramen, and then just glazed them with brown sugar and butter.
And made a ramen and almond crunch.
Even though I'm feeling a lot of stress, I'm not gonna give up easily.
[Stanley] I got a really good fluff on my sabayon.
Now, with my beurre d'orange sauce, I'm gonna use French whiskey
and the orange ice cream popsicle.
[Amanda] French whiskey that they have, it's like a sipping whiskey.
It has a lot of vanilla, honey notes to it. It is so delicious.
[Stanley] I'm really pulling some inspiration from Julia Child's duck a l'orange.
With some flambe elements.
Come on, chefs, you have two minutes, 40 seconds!
I'm using orange pops, melting them down, reducing them a little bit,
and that's gonna be the base for my orange sauce.
[Amanda] The orange ice pops are pretty delicious, I have to say.
They've got that creamsicle flavor.
More on the orange side than the creamy side for sure.
[Mike] French whiskey.
It creates the flambe of the crepes suzette.
But right now I'm in a panic. I've still got my filling. I've gotta fill my crepes.
Traditionally, crepe suzette gets folded in a pan.
The sauce gets built in the pan, and the crepe gets folded into a triangle,
and then served just like that.
Chef Mike, you gotta start plating.
[Ted] One minute to go, chefs.
Mike, get it on the plate.
[Amanda] Come on, finish up.
[Scott] Go, chefs. Let's go.
Get it done. Get it done.
You got Julia on your side.
[Ted] All right, chefs. Final seconds of the final round.
Ten, nine,
eight, seven,
six, five,
four, three,
two, one.
-Time's up! -[Scott] Great job.
[judges applauding]
[Mike] It was a tough one.
Those damn ramen noodles really screwed me up.
But I was very happy with my first two dishes.
This one is a little bit... shaky.
[Stanley] I feel like I have a good shot at winning this competition.
This will be a great moment in my life, not only for myself.
For those around me, who supported me throughout my life.
In the memory of my parents, who tried their best.
[tense music playing]
[Ted] Chef Stan and Chef Mike.
The mandatory ingredients for your final round were orange ice cream pops,
candy cane beets,
ramen noodles, and French whiskey.
Ingredients inspired by Julia Child's recipe for crepes suzette.
All right, Chef Stan, what's for dessert?
We have a sabayon with ramen noodle streusel,
and candy cane beets and apples.
[Amanda] Obviously, this is very creative.
It's got some really good flavor.
The earthiness of the beets is really coming out and pairing nicely
with the orange sabayon.
The sabayon has good egg flavor, strong egg flavor.
I think you need to cook it out a little bit more, actually.
So dense. Kind of coats your palate the way an egg yolk would.
And that's one of the challenges of it.
When you say candied beets, did you say candied or caramelized?
-Candied. -[Mike] Candied.
I would've wanted that to be a little bit more candied.
Yeah.
But it all eats really well together.
I was concerned about the texture of the streusel that you made.
And I actually like it a lot. I mean, the... The noodles gave it this interesting,
sort of little crunch.
Those candy cane beets, they just go so well
with the orange you have inside here.
But when I think about crepes suzette, I think about
that overwhelmingly perfume of orange.
Right? There's always that there. And I want more of that.
Finally, Chef Mike.
I have a beet and orange glazed crepes
with a toasted almond and ramen crunch on top.
[Scott] Chef, this is really great.
You should be selling this little crunch in... In the front of the restaurant.
-Put it in a package, tie a bow on it... -[Amanda chuckles]
It's really, really delicious.
[Michael] Mike, it's almost like this caramelized granola situation
that you have on top of it.
It's really interesting.
[Amanda] I would eat that as a cereal.
It's delicious. It's so interesting how it plays with the candied beets.
And then just gives that crepe some much-needed texture.
And I like the custard that you have inside of there.
But, for me, crepes suzette is saucy.
So I want that sauce surrounding these crepes, it just needed more.
I think that maybe there was an opportunity there to get some more beet
into the dessert, since it was in the basket.
I wonder, chef. What would it mean to you to win this tournament?
Besides the bragging rights, winning a trip to Paris would be pretty fantastic.
-I would take my wife, Sherri. -[Amanda] Nice.
-[Ted] Chef Mike, thank you. -Ted.
You both took the Julia Child theme and ran with it.
We'll tell you in a few minutes which chef has emerged the champion.
[intense music playing]
Judges, what were some of the most Julia Child moves you saw
from those two chefs?
Let's start in dessert. Because, actually, one of the most Julia Child-esque
things I saw was Chef Mike's crumble on top of his crepe.
-That was a mistake-- -That he turned into magic.
Magic!
-That's what Julia's all about! -It was really...
It was really awesome.
[Scott] In the appetizer round, Chef Stan...
What he extracted from those fish heads was really quite nice.
-[Michael] Mmm-hmm. -[Scott] There was that hint of the meuniere in there.
It should've been a little bit more,
but I think the best part were the braised greens.
Chef Mike really struggled with the fish head.
There was a lot of... bone.
And scales.
But I still think Chef Mike finessed the luscious, buttery, fatty sauce.
In round two, Mike definitely gave us a dish inspired by beef bourguignon.
It was a little old-school, but there was craveability in that.
On Chef Stan's plate...
I did like his sauce. I did like the way he prepared his mushrooms.
But I thought the sweet potato puree took away
from everything else he did on that plate.
[Michael] I also wasn't in love with how Stan grilled the bavette.
Searing a nice crust onto it is necessary for this interpretation
of... Of beef bourguignon.
[Amanda] But he did showcase the petite mirepoix really well.
I like what he did with that.
Well, who will be back to battle it out in the finale?
[intense music playing]
[Mike] How badly I wanna go on is really just eating away...
I want this right down to my soul.
[Stanley] I'm feeling good. I'm also really nervous to find out who won.
But, you know, overall, I feel good.
Whose dish is on the chopping block?
Chef Stan, you've been chopped.
-Judges? -[Scott] Chef Stan.
This was tough. First of all, thank you for being here.
In your appetizer round, there were a lot of bones. There were a lot of scales.
And the spirit of that meuniere wasn't necessarily there for you.
Your main course was really delicious.
We loved the wagyu beef that you cooked. Unfortunately, you grilled it.
And you didn't roast it.
And your usage of the sweet potato puree was just unnecessary.
And it took away from that spirit of the beef bourguignon.
And so, we have to chop you.
I understand. Chef...
-Chef, thank you. -Good luck.
-A pleasure. -We'll be in touch.
I know that it could've gone either way.
Surprisingly, I still feel really great.
This is just another milestone in my journey.
And that means, Chef Mike Andrzejewski...
you are the Chopped champion, and we will see you back here
for the Chopped Julia Child's Kitchen Finale!
-Well done. -[Scott] Well done.
-Well done. Well done. -Congratulations, chef.
Thank you, judges. Thank you, everybody.
This win today really reflects in a lot of work throughout the years.
I've got a lot of work to do to get through the next challenges.
I really need to step it up.
This $25,000 experience in France would really be something amazing
for my wife Sherri.
It really would be a great thing to bring home for her.